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Cuddly Knut
Berlin Zoo's abandoned polar bear cub Knut looks cute, cuddly and has become a front-page media darling, but an animal rights activist insists he would have been better off dead than raised by humans.

March 22, 2007

Knut the polar bear cub has his own video podcast and TV
series.

Photographer of the stars Annie Leibovitz came to take his
portrait. Now, his handlers are working on an eagerly awaited debut
before the clamouring public.

The Berlin Zoo's baby bear is the German capital's hottest
celebrity at the tender age of 15 weeks.

Zoo officials met today to discuss when the button-eyed cub
could be brought out for the public to see. Thus far he has
endeared himself through pictures on the zoo's website and in
newspapers showing him gnawing a brush and wrestling with a soccer
ball.

"I think that people will be able to see the bear by this
weekend," Andreas Ochs, a veterinarian with the Berlin Zoo said on
N-24 television, noting that he would have to be shown with his
handler and only for brief periods throughout the day.

"Certainly, the public is going to have to be patient, as there
will be a huge interest," Ochs said.

Fascination with the nine-kilogram bear has grown only in
recent days, after headlines generated by an animal activist who
insisted that the cub should have been left to die after his mother
ignored him and his brother - who later died - after their birth in
December. They were the first polar bears born at the zoo in 33
years.

Zoo officials intervened, instead choosing to raise the cub
themselves through bottle-feeding and keeping the cub in an
incubator.

The story earlier this week prompted quick condemnations from
the zoo, politicians and animal rights groups who argued that,
although the bear would be more used to humans than his
counterparts, the world needed all the polar bears it can get.

"Polar bears are under threat of extinction, and if we feed the
bear with a bottle, it has a good chance of growing up and perhaps
becoming attractive as a stud for other zoos," Andre Schuele,
another veterinarian at the zoo said.

The fuss over Knut continued today with the country's largest
newspaper, Bild, publishing a Knut poster, matched by
Berlin's own B.Z. tabloid.

Knut, who recently posed for a photo shoot with Leibovitz for an
environmental protection campaign, will star in a TV series
documenting his life on Berlin's RBB public television station
starting on Sunday.

Stephen McCourt, the manager of marine sciences at Sea World on the
Gold Coast, said: "In deciding whether to hand-raise or euthanase
the polar bear cub abandoned by its mother in captivity, each
institution must make its own decision based on the genetic
soundness, viability and health of the animal.

"If the animal is genetically viable, Sea World would
argue that human intervention must be considered as an option.

"Animals in captivity, especially endangered animals, provide a
valuable educational platform from which to teach the
community.
"There is a relatively small number of polar bears in human care
around the world, and they play a vital role in highlighting the
plight of their wild counterparts.

"With global warming, polar bears are under the threat of
extinction and some global experts would have us believe that in 40
to 60 years there won't be any polar bears.

"Given the increased rarity of polar bears in the wild, and the
issues they're facing as a result of global warming, every animal
in human care is valuable.
"There is a possibility that in the future, these animals in human
care may form the basis for future wild populations."